Hell Revealed (HR.WAD)

Hell Revealed was designed to be hard. Let's just get this out of the way. Donner and Niv, the WAD's architects (I believe hailing from Israel), used skill level 4 to create a difficulty level for those who found Ultra-Violence in other PWADs to be easy, using skill level 3 to provide a setting more in line with the previous UV standard. However, to quote Donner:

"...some people never bother to use skill level selections, and always play on Ultra-Violence. These people see that Hell Revealed is too hard for them on Ultra-Violence but instead of playing on skill 3 or even lower, they just say 'Hell Revealed is too hard' and switch to godmode or don't play at all. To me it seems really stupid - after all, that's what difficulty levels are for!"

Hell Revealed's story is fairly indicative of its emphasis on gameplay. Chipping away at the fourth wall, you wake up with a pistol in hand with fifty bullets in tow and realize you have visible health and armor. You're sent into an invaded jumpgate lab courtesy of two insane WAD authors. Your mission is to discover what in fact your mission is as well as clearing all the levels and sending "a letter of complaint to the madmen who sent you here". There is no overarching theme to the WAD's episodes. You'll find techbase, city, castle, underground, marble temple, and a few surprises that resemble nothing else, all jumbled together in a heady cocktail.

Cutting away all the monsters, what does Hell Revealed look like? Well, it's not detailed. Donner and Niv paint with a very broad brush. The true star of this mapset's aesthetics is its architecture, heightened by excellent use of lighting. The scope of the playgrounds you endure is titanic, with gargantuan columns and buildings. It's a very stark beauty that looks empty when devoid of enemies, giving one the feeling of being infinitesimal. The opening series of maps shies away from this sentiment as they're a smaller, lo-fi affair. They hint at the overall direction of the WAD but are generally a different experience.

So, throw all the monsters back in. How does it play? Well, it plays well and HARD, with clear stylistic differences between authors. Niv tends toward monotype monster packs and straightforward maps while Donner features more complicated mixtures and scenarios. Niv's major exception is the penultimate map, "Temple of Fear", perhaps his best outing (and certainly my favorite of his). The overall emphasis is on tricky fights with tough monsters or full-on slaughters. Maybe there's some bullet Hell you have to endure, or it's handling dangerous beasties in up-close and personal scenarios (especially Cyberdemons). Difficulty eases in with the first ten or so maps being among the least strenuous the WAD has to offer. Actually, mapping quality for the first "episode" is overall below that of the later offerings. The gameplay is there, but it's almost as though you can see Donner and Niv learning to map...

Rounding out the overall experience is a mostly new soundtrack from Apogee's Rise of the Triad, sounding excellent and generally keeping the pulse pounding. Some of the Doom II standards showed up for the later maps, but I don't know if that's just a source port goof. Yeah, I'd recommend Hell Revealed. Find your ideal difficulty level, though. That's what they're there for! HR isn't the most aesthetically stunning megaWAD you'll ever play, but it gets the job done. Sidenote: Hell Revealed has an accompanying info pack as an exe, much like the Memento Mori series. You may have to go through some hoops to run it, though.

HELL REVEALED
by Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv

Into the Gate	MAP01
by Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv
Cute little techbase opener with a couple snags, like flooding the exit room with demons and then imps, successively. Pretty easy to handle though, especially as they've prepped you with a berserk pack right there. Detailing is a bit sparse but it's all about the combat, anyway. Some sights worth seeing... The lighting in the opening hallway and, really, everywhere is top notch. Also dig that pack of frozen demons you get to thaw out later. The best looking room to me would be the pentacle room, with the demon rush my standout encounter.

MAP02	Gateway Lab
by Yonatan Donner
	Another techbase, this one a bit larger and with more earthy tones (and zero outdoor content). There are no manic moments a la the teleport waves as seen in MAP01, but Donner keeps the pressure up by steadily throwing monsters at you. Nothing tough, but the shotgun guys and chaingunners seem threatening. There's a super shotgun hidden somewhere, but with the baddie pedigree, it's not really necessary. Standouts include the dark strobe hallway beyond the blue key door and, funnily enough, the switch / corridor minimaze leading to the security armor. Very fun.

The Dumpster	MAP03
by Yonatan Donner
More techbase, this one set in its bowels, one presumes. It's more of the same gameplay as in MAP02, but with restricted movement / cramped corridors and rooms, and a few surprises that may eat you alive. The opening is a bit harder, putting you front and center with some sergeants with nowhere to run. The other big kick in the pants is the room beyond the yellow key. All I can say is, be prepared. There's a bit more puzzle-solving, too. Some great stuff, with the aforementioned yellow key room being my standout encounter.

MAP04	The Garden Terminal
by Yonatan Donner and Haggay Niv
	A short level in two parts. The first is the garden, with a row of blasted trees before making your way to some neat architecture in the bricked-in yards, including a well. Things heat up a bit with a few hell knights and a revenant (albeit caged) showing up. The second half is a techbase populated with lower-tier monsters that are nonetheless threatening due to the open space. I prefer the opening segment, with its (light) puzzle-solving.

Core Infection	MAP05
by Yonatan Donner
Hey, another techbase! This one has a more mazey layout with plenty of viewports allowing you to see the other sections you'll explore. Ammo's a little short at the beginning and you won't get to use the plasma rifle until the end, but it's sorely needed. Donner breaks out the rest of the Doom II monsters at this point. Yeah, everyone has at least one cameo. Favorite moment is a tossup between the arachnotron room and clearing out the eastern halls which are choked with imps and demonkin.

MAP06	The Round Crossroads
by Yonatan Donner
	More techbase, this one with a hefty outdoor section serving as its centerpiece, the "round crossroads". The opening is a little tricky to sort out as you'll be hard-pressed to make the courtyard safe while dodging the rest of the uglies. There are some clever bits like the plasma rifle secret sequence or the tricky crusher atrium and the use of barons as effective blockades. The courtyard is my personal highlight as far as encounters.

Arachnophobia	MAP07
by Haggay Niv
A welcome departure from the techbase standard finds the marine in a hellish mixture of blood, red rock, and organics, constructed in the shape of a giant spider. You've got to take down 46 arachnotrons and one bad momma. The arachnotrons must be dispatched with the SSG, which will likely come in two phases. First, circle strafing around the main body, taking out the free roamers in the center (and for me, the two in the head). Afterward you'll get to practice your close-quarters SSG skills in each of the legs before peppering the mastermind with rockets. As long as the free-roaming spiders don't muck things up by blocking your run, it should be a cinch.

MAP08	The Jail
by Haggay Niv
	Niv follows up the "Arachnophobia" break with a castle / dungeon type level in earthy tones. Detailing is quite sparse, and that includes such niceties as lighting. Gameplay is pretty good, though. It's a little rough around the edges but has some fun bits like the caged revenant section near the beginning or a handy dandy crusher (great for disposing those chunky barons!). There are also a few sections I suspect are mainly there to fuck with UV-MAX speed runners, like the otherwise inexplicable walls of caged imps fronted by demons. Not the prettiest, but it serves up well.

Knockout	MAP09
by Yonatan Donner
Donner turns the difficulty up a little with a map that borders on Tyson-style gameplay, emphasizing the use of the berserk fist. As is usual for such instances, it's mainly imps and demons, but there are a few rougher monsters used intelligently to mix things up. Detailing is actually pretty good, with some neat skylights and the use of forcefields. The real attraction is the first half of the map, chock full of challenging encounters for Tyson enthusiasts, the two highlights being the revenant / crusher room (where I learned revenants are about as easy to scam as Quake's ogres) and the infamous swarm of imps room, which any sensible player will bypass after doing as much damage as inhumanly possible. The toxic caverns afterward are much lower-key. Very fun.

MAP10	Chambers of War
by Haggay Niv
	A definite improvement over Niv's earlier offerings. There's less stylistic dead space and some care toward making the fights more interesting. It's a bit boxy, with almost everything at right angles, but I like it. Highlights include a long basement staircase replete with pain elementals and a large, outdoor hedge maze that's easy to navigate with a few traps. He also does a good job playing with player expectations by shoving a jalapeno among the bell peppers in the map's final room.

Underground Base	MAP11
by Yonatan Donner
The first of the hard maps, unless you had some trouble playing punch-out in MAP09. It's a large subterranean compound chock-full with hellspawn, including numerous arch-viles, three cyberdemons and two spider-masterminds. Apparently the ammo has been tightly controlled here, but with the amount of infighting and stuff you can get going, it never really feels like it. Highlights – the columned room with access to one of the better-hidden secrets (and the map's only rocket launcher), including the close-quarters Cyberdemon tango. Also the giant room with demons, baron ilk and revenants, where you can save much of your ammo with careful maneuvering and wise use of the Cyberdemon. As usual, Donner's lighting looks great.

MAP12	Great Halls of Fire
by Yonatan Donner
	A more relaxed outing to being the second episode. Like the preceding map, it takes place entirely underground. Though it's easier by far, it's still full of memorable fights. There's a neat bit where you dance around a pack of imps closing in on you, a large wave of arachnotrons, and a slow fight after acquiring the SSG where you kill barons one by one as they are gated into a marble room by falling walls. The arch-viles aren't quite as obnoxious while the fights with the big two are neat, though the Spiderdemon encounter is pretty simple (spam plasma or die). Other highlights include the light hitscanner maze you can retreat into and the eastern arch-vile fight, which you may or may not find yourself prepared for.

Last Look at Eden	MAP13
by Yonatan Donner
It's a large outdoor level filled with baddies, with great scenery and lighting. The opening section looks like it could have come from Plutonia, with its crazy arena-style gameplay. It's not that difficult to handle with some patience and some infighting. The big shift comes from opening the first door, where you're assaulted by an arch-vile and a pack of revenants, practically hustling you into the next area, a tiered slaughter you have to fight your way down... Or just vault past entirely, taking care to grab the SSG before the chaingunners mulch you, and move into the courtyard. From then on it's a series of challenges you can take on at your own pace. Highlights include the soul sphere trap, the blue key battle (nasty!), and the swarm that pours in from behind the blue door. Thankfully, monster movement in the courtyard itself is pretty restricted. Not to be missed!

MAP14	City in the Clouds
by Yonatan Donner
	A gorgeous "Downtown" style level that presents you with an immediate problem. Where are all the guns? You'll have to pry them from the cold, dead fingers of the hellspawn defending them. Each gun has a terrifying ambush to accompany it, except the cell ammo ones, but you have to be pretty far along to have them anyway. The buildings all have some neat encounters in them as well. My main standout moments: Getting the Cyberdemon in the center square to infight practically everything; the cramped and dangerous yellow key ambush; and at least two occasions where a Cyberdemon teleports into a small room with you, demanding some temperance. The giant stone arches that bookend the main arena are a nice touch.

Gates to Hell	MAP15
by Yonatan Donner
Donner graces us with another outdoor map, this one with a palpable gimmick. It begins with a relatively benign but nonetheless packed slaughter with an outer ring of imps and an inner ring of mancubuses, with an arch-vile at the very center. Once you've sorted out the initial melee it turns into a key hunt as you explore the eight segments of the outer area via teleporter, combating some ingenious monster placement for the Hellspawn. Each scenario has its quirks, with the first of the eight segments being the roughest (in my opinion). The most obnoxious element of this map are the windows packed with baron ilk, soaking up ammo and just being ill-tempered in general. As you flip the map's major switches, you'll release Cyberdemons into the main arena, so be prepared.

MAP31	The Descent
by Yonatan Donner
	A very simple map from Donner with some very nasty gameplay. It starts out with an elevator descent portion in a castle theme where the shaft fills with monsters, mostly toughs and demons / imps, with the stakes slowly increasing. Eventually you reach the bottom only to find a very rude chaingunner ambush (but of course; what else were you expecting?) followed up by a pack of spectres regardless of which Wolfenstone alcove you duck into. So make a stand and take your time. At this point you decide between the normal exit or the secret. The normal requires more fighting, but if you know the right tricks, it's much easier to handle than the initial descent, with the monsters doing most of your work for you. The early secret exit requires some fancy footwork, but nothing too harsh. INCREDIBLY fun level.

Mostly Harmful	MAP32
by Yonatan Donner
An absolute madcap rush. It's one main circular area with a moat and an inner isle (the exit) and four identical branches, three of which house keys. You start the level in the fourth. Every inch of this map is choked with monsters. The outer wings are loaded down with four arch-viles, two Cyberdemons and an army of mancubuses, among other things. The moat is choked with some more manageable fare, the inner isle with barons and the outer ring a veritable cloud of revenants. From the first shot fired, a boss shooter will begin to introduce monsters into the map, four at a time. You've got to get all three keys and then make it to the center isle, where (on UV) you must wait for the sweet release of death to exit. It may seem insurmountable, but the biggest challenge to my well-being was actually shooter spawns that blocked my attempts to immediately duck into the outer wings and tuck into some much-needed cell ammo. The map is otherwise quite gorgeous, with 3D bridges (also doubling as traps at the end) and marble arches and monuments in the outer area.

MAP16	The Path
by Yonatan Donner
	A level made entirely out of light brown rock and blood floors, with some brown metal columns here and there to spice things up. Compared to the past few offerings, "The Path" has a much slower pace. It's a vast underground cavern with walkways protruding from the toxic blood on the floor. Some of the pace has to do with the proliferation of barons in the map. They hang around on every walkway, and you'll have a second wave to deal with when you grab the keys and return to the opening area. Donner differentiates the northern section from the latter by raising the walkway (making it more like a dock), which is a nice touch. The northern rooms aren't difficult to handle, but the northwestern one (with the arch-vile) is kind of annoying to deal with. The other big danger is the column of mancubuses you'll have to fight through to get the blue key, unless you were patient enough to dispatch them from below.

The Black Towers	MAP17
by Yonatan Donner
A short level more in the style of Donner's "City in the Clouds". Action opens up outside, in a courtyard with a fountain filled with revenants, and a number of barons outside. When you've finally calmed things down, you can investigate the three squat, black "towers" which house the map's three keys. You'll need at least two to leave, including the red one. Whichever building you leave for last will serve purely as bragging rights. Encounters inside the towers are tough and trapped, with the northeastern being the most manageable (in my opinion). Standout encounters include a wave of revenants teleporting into the map as well as the pulse-pounding baron kite that opens up the level.

MAP18	Hard Attack
by Yonatan Donner
	An underground level in the vein of MAP12. The opening is a great, action-packed linear gauntlet through a series of encounters, including a winding hallway and a cramped cacodemon battle that gets amplified with an arch-vile. Afterward, Donner opens the map up a bit with the main structure. It's a chamber with three layers. While I think the BFG trap is a phenomenal encounter, insisting upon repopulating the upper tier makes the level drag considerably for me. I'm sure there's a great aggressive way to play to knock this shit out for max kills, but this just falls flat. The three chambers branching off have some cool battles including a warping Cyberdemon you have to telefrag and a raised battlefield with a Spiderdemon shootout. Excepting the upper ring in the main chamber, I really enjoyed this.

Everything Dies	MAP19
by Yonatan Donner
This is a very straightforward level with some neat, simple encounters. Everyone probably knows about the opening trap by now, featuring four neutered pain elementals. It's very clever, provided you have the lost soul limit in place in your engine of choice. Incidentally, this map is quite easy. Donner provides you with a full kit of ammo and weaponry. Just don't make the same mistake I did and assume the sole weapon he gave you was the shotgun. The only real limit is health. You won't find any outside of the megasphere, so step lively. It's nice to have these little breathers.

MAP20	Judgement Day
by Yonatan Donner
	Nice level in a marble cathedral-style theme with some cool encounters. It starts out slow as fuck, though. You've got quite the horde to take on with a single shotgun, the worst room being the mancubus hallway. The leadup to the yellow key is pretty cool, though. Not tough at all, especially with a well-marked SSG secret. Things pick up with the yellow door wing which has a risky up-close encounter with two arch-viles followed by a Cyberdemon shootout among the blood-red columns. The red wing has a warping baron encounter reminiscent of Kvernmo's Black Tower, except a little more annoying. The final bit does a good job of taking itself out via infighting. The eastern wing is my favorite, by far, with its blood fountain, staircase, and imposing columns complete with stained glass windows.

Siege	MAP21
by Haggay Niv
A very simple level from Niv with a great opening set piece. It's a house – your house – where no monster can tread. All your ammo, health and powerups are located here. There's even a megasphere on the bed. The fighting is a gauntlet of encounters featuring two enemy types, with a few wrinkles. The first is barons and revenants, the second revenants and cacodemons, and the third Cyberdemons and demons. The first two are pretty by the numbers; the third can get a little hairy if only because you have to worry about dodging the rockets of four staggered Cyberdemons (unless you tether some to the Spiderdemon at the end). The architecture is nothing impressive, excepting the penultimate challenge, with its mancubus towers making for a great visual.

MAP22	Resistance is Futile
by Yonatan Donner
	A bona-fide slaughtermap in which you are forced to confront ridiculous amounts of demons choking up the play area. Your first order of business is to clear out the trash already milling around, which includes a Cyberdemon telefrag as well as BFG frenzy tactics just to get to a slightly less dangerous location. Afterward you get to deal with the insurgents and start flipping switches. Like Milo Casali's "Showdown" from Memento Mori, each button opens up a new section of the map with a brand new wave of Hellspawn to accompany it. It's a fun exercise in crowd suppression, with one of my favorite encounters being the red key fight, which involves several Masterminds and Cyberdemons in close-quarters. The layout is otherwise unremarkable, but it gets the job done.

Ascending to the Stars	MAP23
by Yonatan Donner
Perhaps one of the most difficult maps of Hell Revealed, in a bizarre fusion of Hell and starbase with some blue marble to round it out. It opens with you facing no less than four successive hordes of imps with a single shotgun. Of course, the best route involves sprinting past all of them, a feat that requires some practice as you have to corral them in mere seconds. And you'll keep running, until you get your rocket launcher and end up in the Spiderdemon arena, where the big bad is peppered by mancubus fireballs while you try to clear them from the rafters. It doesn't really let up until the segment behind the blue door, and even then, you're subjected to one of the nastier rooms of the entire set, two walls full of arch-viles, rounded out with a Cyberdemon behind the final door, all of which you need to clear out before you detonate the power core. Very tiring, but very edifying when you finally tear the last jerk to shreds.

MAP24	Post Mortem
by Yonatan Donner
	Good news! Donner has given you more than enough ammo and health to deal with the hordes of Hell. Bad News! This map will leave you feeling about as exposed as humanly possible. It takes place in a vast underground cavern, a la "The Living End", except every nook and cranny has been lovingly carpeted with monsters and structured in such a way that they continuously harry you. In fact, the safest place for you to be at the map's beginning is in the drink below, safely tucked into an enviro suit. There's so much shit to do here that none of the fights really stand out, except perhaps the final assault, which you should definitely save an invulnerability for in order to make a decent dent. Well, that and that feeling you get when you rush past all the arch-viles in the center section in order to access the map's two teleporters (especially when the Cyberdemons on the other end are shooting at you). Finally, when this WAD was originally released, no executable could save on the level. My hat goes off to its demo recorders.

Dead Progressive	MAP25
by Yonatan Donner
Simple arena-style level with mossy stone floor and brown brick walls. After you clear out the demons in the yard, you undergo a series of challenges in order to get access to the blue key, the only one of which is all that dangerous is the revenant swarm. My favorite moment though is the blue key trap, which requires a bit of quick thinking to stay alive while you wait for your eventual release. I also like the warp gates that take you to the opposite side of the map.

MAP26	Afterlife
by Yonatan Donner
	If you should only play one map from Hell Revealed, make it this one. It's an epic in three parts, the first involving a lethal crossfire suspended in the blackness of infinity, complete with two surreal buildings, one of which has a dining hall, the other containing a chessboard whose pieces spring to life. From here you have your pick of two sustained challenges, which you access by barely-visible markers that teleport you into light tunnels reminiscent of the journey section of "2001: A Space Odyssey". The marble temple is compact with you fighting for cover, then slowly clearing stuff out and flipping switches at the exterior, one of which releases a slew of ghost imps, which you have to tactically handle through infighting with the not-ghost baron. The other segment takes place in the deep blue of eternity, on a curious t-shaped highway. You've got to bob and weave through the residents to get to relative safety, after which you can go back and clear it out to prepare for one of the more dangerous moments involving two arch-viles and a whole skeleton crew pouring into a pitch-black basement. When you return, you'll have to deal with the hordes previously located to the north and south on top of an extended army of ghost monsters, though Donner finally sees fit to grant access to the rocket launcher. Of course, you don't have to kill everything. They're already dead, aren't they? An excellent adventure.

Cyberpunk	MAP27
by Haggay Niv
A tentative fusion of Hell and techbase whose primary showcase is a showdown with five Cyberdemons in a maze. Most of it's a relatively competent sewer layout vs. single monster packs, like an enormous imp onslaught or a room chock full of barons. I do like the detailing in the Spiderdemon room; the gunk puddling at the bases of the columns is a great touch. Otherwise, the Cyberdemon segment is plain annoying. You may not be able to take them on one at a time so good luck bumping them with the BFG. The maze looks pretty good, though, Cyberdemons be damned.

MAP28	Top Hell
by Haggay Niv
	Infinitely less obnoxious than "Cyberpunk" despite having even more Cyberdemons! More grand Hell Revealed architecture from Niv in a Hellish, underground theme. The opening takes a little sorting out but as long as you know where the BFG is stashed, you'll do fine. There's plenty of health and rockets so all you need to do is avoid catching one in your teeth (and dodge immolation via arch-vile). Highlights include the baron army staring you down at the opening, the inverse "Tricks and Traps" room where the Cyberdemons pile out like it's a clown car, and the swarm of arch-viles that pour out of the plasma rifle room. I think this map makes the best use of Niv's tendency to assault the player with single-type monster packs.

Temple of Fear	MAP29
by Haggay Niv
Niv's final map is a marble temple set into a cavern. The level is pretty expansive and is (in my opinion) Niv's best work in the mapset. There's some neat architecture, like the dark altar (or the massive pentagram) as well as some great use of lighting. The true feature are the encounters, though. While the level is overall quite easy compared to the last, say, seven, there are a few ballbusters that help play into the theme of the temple: fear. First of all, the running of the bulls at the very beginning, armed with nothing more than a chainsaw. Then a tricky battle with revenants and two arch-viles you'll have to be clever and quick to survive. Things calm down a bit until you jump into the teleporter into the "basement", a Hellish shootout in near total darkness. It's much less intimidating when you hit the light switch, but you'll have to get there, first. Finally, there's a showdown with two Cyberdemons bound to a pentagram that protects you as long as you don't step inside it. Also of note – a maze in total darkness with lethal pits, the correct route leading to some hefty bonuses. A great topper to HR's normal maps.

MAP30	Hell Revealed
by Yonatan Donner
	Ha. An absolute nightmare on UV. It's pretty much every other boss shooter, if every other boss shooter has a Cyberdemon in the foreground, packs of revenants to his sides, four arch-viles at your back, and galleries of imps to your left and right. During this all manner of shit spawns in. The RNG can be pretty cruel here, especially with a lack of cell ammo. A bunch of pain elementals will pretty much end it for you. After you take out the most dangerous enemies, you get to figure out just where Donner wants you to time the rocket fire. As it turns out, you've got to pull the trigger while you're still on the platform and then run off. While it's the shortest map of the set, it left me feeling the most exhausted. Ouch.

WITH WAR MACHINES GOING / THE BLOOD STARTS TO FLOWING
NO MERCY GIVEN TO ANYONE HERE
THE FURIOUS FIGHTING / SWORDS ARE LIKE LIGHTNING
IT ALL BECOMES FRIGHTENING TO YOU, KNOW DEATH IS NEAR

This post is part of a series on
Doomworld's Top 10 WADs of 1997

Requiem	Eternal Doom
Gothic DM	STRAIN
Mordeth	The Talosian Incident
Dawn of the Dead	Hell Revealed
Hell's Eventide	CHORD_NG